READING AGEWhat is a reading age and how is it assessed?

Why is it important?

How can I support my child to improve their reading age?

WHAT IS A READING AGE?

A reading age is the average reading level of a certain age group.

HOW ARE READING AGES ASSESSED?

How is your child’s reading age assessed?

• Phonic awareness

• Comprehension

The reading age of a text is assessed through its data:

• Average number of characters per word

• Average number of syllables per word

• Average number of word per sentence

Reading ages by text…AQA GCSE Biology Textbook15-17 years

GCSE PE Textbook14-15 years

Smart Science KS311-13 years

AQA GCSE English Extract11-13 years

Crown and Country KS3 History Textbook10-11 years

Maths Higher Tier GCSE Paper8-9 years

THE READING PROCESS

Strong comprehension

Poor comprehension

Weak decoding

Strong decoding

Fake

• Moves around a lot

• Loses their place and takes ages to turn a page

• Can’t discuss the book

• Flips pages very quickly

• Talking

• Looks about or eyes very still

Fake reading or real

reading?

Real• Sits still• Silent• Asks questions about their book• Turns pages at the right pace• Eyes move across the page

Little and often

Quiet

Print or digital

Practise

How can you help?

S – ou – n – d – i – ng is splitting the word into its letter sounds.

B l en d i ng is starting to merge the sounds back together again.

How to work out a

difficult word…

HOW TO RE-READ FOR INFORMATION

• SKIM – re-read the topic sentence of each paragraph on a page, to get an overall sense of what is happening and where you might find the answer.

• SCAN – search for key words in a certain paragraph, then read around them to find the exact answer.

How to do it…

Skim the text by reading the topic sentence of each paragraph to get an overall idea of what is happening.

Scan any speech for key words that tell you what is being said.

Useful sentence starters…

· The most important ideas are…· The main idea is…· This part was about…· First, … Next, … Then, …· This story takes place in…· The main characters are…· The problem of the story is...

How to do it…

• Stop and think about the clues there are in what you have read• Re-read it faster or slower• Make pictures in your mind- visualise• Use print conventions to help – e.g. key words, bold print, italicized

words and punctuation• Look for little words inside big words • Keep reading to see if you can guess the meaning of the word

Useful sentence starters…

• To be clear, this means…• If we break this word up, we can see…• It seems to me that… because…• After re-reading this, I think…• When I see this, I visualise…

How to do it…

• Think about what information is missing, which might help your group to understand the text better

• Think about whether your group’s responses are in depth enough –could they probe even deeper into the text? Could they interpret the text in another way?

Useful sentence starters…

• Why do you think…• Can you provide an example to

support that?• What would happen if…• How did…• When will…• What is…• Who did…

How to do it…

Think about what you have read and try to figure out• What might happen next• What you might learn from reading on

You can change your predictions after your have looked at a new picture or read on in the text

Useful sentence starters…

• I imagine…• I predict…• I wonder if…• I think…• After reading this, I think…• Based on this picture, I imagine…

LIBRARY OPPORTUNITIES

Open every breaktime, lunchtime and after school

Borrow and return books

Carnegie Fiction Challenge

Book Club

Debate Club